Batman

Death by Design

In this new original graphic novel from superstar writer/designer Chip Kidd and artist Dave Taylor, Gotham City is undergoing one of the most expansive construction booms in its history. The most prestigious architects from across the globe have buildings in various phases of completion all over town. As chairman of the Gotham Landmarks Commission, Bruce Wayne has been a key part of this boom, which signals a golden age of architectural ingenuity for the city. And then, the explosions begin. All manner of design-related malfunctions–faulty crane calculations, sturdy materials suddently collapsing, software glitches, walkways giving way and much more–cause casualties across the city. This bizarre string of seemingly random, unconnected catastrophes threaten to bring the whole construction industry down. Fingers are pointed as Batman must somehow solve the problem and find whoever is behind it all.

Baker & TaylorAs Gotham City undergoes a massive architectural boom, a series of unexplained construction accidents begin to cause casualties across the city and it is up to Batman to discover who is behind the string of catastrophes.

Comment

I agree with Keogh and theorbys that the story perhaps was a bit underwhelming but I loved this book! The art mixed with the era chosen to portray Batman was a really neat idea and it was fresh to me in the world of Batman too. The Joker was awesome in this and I liked the Penguin too, he deserved some more shine and got it in this story.

A bit light on story, though the art's agreeable. Generally an Elseworlds kind of tale, set in the forties or so by the looks of the architecture and most of the technology used throughout (though a couple of Batman invented items would be sci-fi even today). The story concerns itself with graft and corruption surrounding buildings in the city, leading into a series of explosions targeting key sites. Kidd underuses the Joker... who might well have appeared here just for the sake of appearing. The art style has a washed out quality to it, which works in this instance.

Art is amazing, story is lacking, It is a short and worth while read however.

theorbys
Aug 16, 2012

I got this for the art, which is 5 star, but while the story is good, it needs work, (the Joker looked great, but his role in this isn't very interesting), and some of the words, eg streams of consciousness, news reports, were weak. Chip Kidd is new to this so it is not a bad beginning. The art is mostly greyish scale, with color for highlight and emphasis and has the look of being done with colored pencils. I also liked the idea of it being in the golden age, late 40s or early 50s.